“Oohalu Gusa Gusalaade” – film review!

“Oohalu Gusa Gusalaade” attracts the attention of telugu film viewers as a low budget venture from big producer Sai Korrapati, and also as the directorial debut of Srini Avasarala who has proven himself as a comic actor in almost all his outing’s as an actor.

The film also marks the debut of Naga Shourya in the lead role. Female lead Rashi Khanna was seen first in “Madras Café” and in telugu, in the recent superhit “Manam.” Music is by Kalyann Koduri, camera was handled by Venkat Dilip.

The film is a love story that is broken by time and how the lovers unite again is told in a funny circumstantial comedy where actor-director Srinivas Avasarala plays an anchor role. Shourya plays a young lad with the dreams of sky in his eyes. His dream is to become a successful news anchor in a TV channel. Just like his POV of life, he is a popular guy in regular life and is working his way up. Avasarala plays his boss – owner of the TV channel Shourya is working at. Just the way Shourya is liked by all, especially girls, he is also hated by colleagues like Posani Krishnamurali, and also by Avasarala who is not a good communicator.

Avasarala decides to use the skills of Shourya in return for Shourya’s dream job of being the news anchor. Shourya has to help him in impressing a girl he has decided to marry. As they are working out this new work relationship between them, Shourya narrates the unforgettable love story of his life, which happened few years ago at Vizag where he went for holidays. Sai Shirisha Prabhavati – the heroine of the story, is a Delhi based telugu girl who is visiting her grandparents at Vizag that summer, equally falls for Shourya, but decides to wait for the test of time before taking a final decision on the issue as they both are still too young. On this note, they part.

Now, Shourya’s expert advice sought by Avasarala is directed at none other than Prabhavati, whose full name is not mentioned to Shourya. The advice program works on few occasions, doesn’t on several other occasions, but each time creating enough comedy for the viewers to enjoy. The comedy of errors is revealed at a point of time, but the young hero is forced to look at the reality, to worry about actually getting hold of his dream job and forget his true love. Will he be able to finally leave his love behind for his job, what are the feelings of the girl in this power game of men? How fate/ time/ true love intervene in this story forms the final part of the story.

The music by Kalyann Koduri form the main attraction of this love story, which are ably supported by good camera work by Venkat Dilip. The lyrics of the songs are very well written, “Em Sandeham Ledu…”, “Emitee Hadavidi…” particularly stand out.

The film is well supported by the supporting cast of Posani, Rao Ramesh, Comedian in “Chinta Gurumurti” character, Satya Krishnan, Pragati and others. Kalyann Koduri makes a cameo appearance in the movie. Rao Ramesh adds much fun to the events in the first half. The “Iron Boy” bit was good. The “blue tooth” bits were extremely funny.

Srini Avasarala as the third lead performs well but another actor would have added complexity to the affairs. His portrayal of the character was excessively comic which makes the outcome pre-concluded and dilutes certain needed suspense/ credibility in the story progression. The “punch focused” dialogs of Avasarala were a bit excessive at times; he may have over worked himself as a writer.

Naga Shourya is a good find. He will get umpteen chances to polish his rough edges, his acting in this first outing is quite appreciable. Rashi Khanna is here to stay, she will be one of the few young girls to watch out for in the future.

The film draws hugely from “Hitch”, French movie “Cyrano de Bergerac” – (memorable performance from Gerard Depardieu), and probably another recent French romantic comedy. Avasarala recently revealed the inspiration of Cyrano in this movie. Avasarala/ Shourya singing from the garden to the heroine was a clear homage to Cyrano. But the handicap of Cyrano, the strong reason behind the pain in that movie was not present in this movie. But it was not intended to be included by the makers, as this is basically a youth oriented romantic comedy.

The film is a nice romantic comedy on the whole. A commendable small film contribution from Sai Korrapati. I would definitely recommend this film for all kinds of audience.